New Toy

I had two new shooters to take to the rifle range yesterday (more on that later), but my wife forgot to bring the .22 down from Colorado.  That was the last push I needed to head to the Outdoorsman yesterday and pick up an Evil Black .22.

I picked the Smith & Wesson M&P 15-22.  The chief reasons were the size, accessory rail, and collapsible stock.  These three features make it very easy to set up for my 6 year old son to learn on, while still allowing me to configure it easily and quickly into something I can use and enjoy.

The good:  We went through over half a box of bulk Remington (which some people have had issues with in this rifle) without a hitch.  We put a ton of holes through paper.  The sights make sighting in the rifle a snap.  It was very easy to train new shooters with.  Most importantly though, everyone shot it and loved it.

The bad:  Towards the end of the day I changed ammo from bulk Remington to some CCI ammo I bought with the M&P 15-22.  I got failure to feeds and slam fires almost immediately.  I pulled the mag and unloaded the CCI ammo.  Went back to shooting the Remington stuff and everything was fine.

The ugly: The box of .22 I bought with the gun was .22 Long, not .22LR.  This is ugly for two reasons.  I didn't so much pick out the CCI ammo as said, "Throw in a box of 100 of that CCI stuff you have back there."  The folks at the gun store should have caught my mistake.  This is why I hate when they keep ammo behind the counter.  I tend to not double check what they got me like I do when I pick it out myself.  The second reason is that I didn't check.  I always check my ammo.  I check the box and the cartridge before loading up just to make sure that the ammo gremlins haven't been playing tricks again.  I didn't check and just got lucky.  That mistake could have easily led to the rifle going kaboom.

Final verdict:  The M&P 15-22 is a great little gun.  It will provide hours of entertainment and it costs very little to keep it fed.  Just make sure to feed it only .22LR and never feed it after midnight.